for the u.s. military to properly carry out its mission and maintain readiness and prepare for the future. which brings me to the proposed $70 billion reduction in the defense budget toplines over the next five years. to begin with, this cut is to the rate of the predict growth. the size of the defense budget is still protect did and projected to increase in real inflation adjusted dollars before eventually flattening out of this time. or significantly, efficiencies, reforms that we've undertaken over the past year have made it possible for the department to absorb lower projected growth in the defense budget without sacrificing real military capability. in fact, the savings identified by the services have allowed our military to add some $70 billion to her priority needs a new capabilities. of the $78 billion in proposed reductions to the five-year defense plan, only 10 billion is direct related to military combat capability. for billion of that comes from restructuring the joint strike fighter p